Handcrafting a vibrant Arab world

Recycled Cardboard Mosque {Tutorial}

We made it. Our whole month of 30 days of Ramadan crafts are over. We really enjoyed coming up with all the new Arabic and Islamic crafts!

I knew I wanted to create something special for today, but honestly had no ideas by the afternoon. I decided a trip to Costco to buy all the food we need for our Eid gathering was a great way to procrastinate. While I was there, I saw a corn box that had a fantastic opening on the side that reminded me of a mosque door. I knew right away that I had to figure out a way to turn it into a toy for my youngest. When we got home, we made it a family affair.

I asked my husband to help with the cutting (box cutters can be a hard for little hands), my oldest daughter helped with making square side pieces, my middle daughter helped design the dome and minaret and I designed and cut out the doors.

My youngest got to enjoy the fruits of our labor by playing with the mosque non-stop since we put it together for her a few hours ago.

Supplies

Cardboard boxesBox cuttersSharpiePencilsT-squareCutting mat

We used the pencil and Sharpie to draw out our designs. It really helps to use the T-square ruler to make sure everything was even.

Use the T-square again with the box cutter to keep cutting stright.

The first piece we made was the side of the mosque, which was 8 x 5 1/2, with two side slits, one inch in.

You’ll need to cut two exactly the same.

The back of our mosque is 11 x 7, again with 1 inch slits on the sides, and an arched door. To get the arched door, I made two lines 4 inches in from each side. I used a cup to get the round of the archway.

The front of the mosque was cut the same way, but my daughter used a pot lid for the dome, and free hand drew the details on the top.

Once all your mosque is complete, it should look like this.

And if you cut your pieces just right, you can see through both doors!

Our minaret is 16 inches tall and at its widest, 5 1/2, to match our sides. We tapered in the sides before adding the dome (another pot lid) and a little detail on top. We also added a slit about 7 inches down to add stability to our pieces. The slits on the bottom and arch door was cut as above.

Make your second piece is identical to the first.

Because the minaret was so tall, we decided to add an attachment piece to connect the front and back towers. It is 4 1/4 wide by 3 3/4 tall. We added the notices so it would fit into the minaret walls.

Here is what the minaret will look like once it’s completed.

As an added bonus, you can use the stabilizer piece as an area where the muezzin calls the adhan.

And as you can see, my daughter used our Peg Muslim Dolls to play with this mosque all afternoon!

And here is a blurred photo of my youngest, having a grand old time with her new mosque (we cut more off the top to look like moons). I haven’t even told her she can color it if she’d like!